What’s New in Lyme Disease Treatment Protocols?

Although the disease is highly mutable and never seems to present the same way in every patient, standard Lyme Disease treatment protocols don’t seem to change much. Sadly, even doctors who want to treat LD aggressively are hamstrung by ineffective treatment guidelines.

Most of the foot-dragging stems from persistent doubt about Lyme Disease on the part of influential researchers — including some of those who defined it in the first place. These individuals have a lot of power to wield, so their beliefs have become (sometimes literally) the law of the land.

Is it any wonder that many patients turn to alternative Lyme treatment protocols for help?

Common Practice

Some renegade physicians have bucked the system to treat Lyme disease victims with heavier doses of antibiotics than normally recommended, sometimes for years at a time. In many cases, the symptoms disappear as a result; sometimes temporarily, often for good.

Many patients relapse immediately when they stop taking the meds, and it can take multiple courses before the disease disappears completely, if it ever does.

But medical review boards actively discourage this sort of aggressive treatment, which admittedly can be difficult on the patient. In some cases, they discipline or de-license the doctors doing it, which has a chilling effect on such treatment options.

Other Methods

Another popular treatment for LD is hyperbaric oxygen therapy, in which the patient undergoes exposure to much higher pressures of oxygen than are normal. This also seems to help, but hyperbaric treatments can be remarkably expensive, and many insurance companies refuse to cover them.

Other much-publicized Lyme Disease treatment protocols include approaches based in naturopathic medicine, homeopathy, herbs, vitamin and nutritional supplements, macrobiotic diets, and more. Treatment with a “nutraceutical” called Betaine HCL, a component of natural stomach acid, may also be effective against Lyme.

Needless to say, there’s no scientific evidence that any of these alternative Lyme Disease protocols work, but they don’t seem to harm, and there’s plenty of positive anecdotal evidence from people happy with the results.

Interesting Options

At any one time there are many LD studies underway, testing various regimens that may, in time, become treatment protocols for Lyme. Currently thiamin (Vitamin B1) and magnesium treatments are under investigation, and may have some hope of stopping at least some forms of LD.

It’s also becoming clear that Lyme spirochetes (the spiral-shaped Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria) can often survive antibiotic treatment. There are several reasons for this, one of which is that active spirochetes build biofilms around themselves to protect them from antibiotics, and change them as necessary.

These biofilms consist of organic material and elements like calcium, magnesium, mercury, lead, and other metallic compounds. Chelation therapy and some enzymes can dissolve these biofilms, and research is ongoing. Expect biofilm treatment protocols to come into play fairly soon.

LD spirochetes also hide in cellular tissues where blood-borne antibiotics can’t reach, and often those in the blood encapsulate themselves in cysts to escape the medications. Some doctors are starting to add antibiotics that can penetrate cysts and solid tissues to their Lyme treatment protocols.

The Treatment Protocol That’s Best for You

It’s a fact of LD life that nothing works for everyone, especially in cases of relapsing/remitting chronic Lyme. Unfortunately, this means you just have to keep trying until you find something that works.

Needless to say, we recommend that you start with accepted treatment protocols, assuming you can find a Lyme-literate doctor who’s open-minded (and caring) enough to treat you aggressively. If normal methods don’t work, then start investigating the more alternative Lyme Disease treatment protocols.